


Heroes

by GalahadWilder



Category: DC Comics, Nightwing - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-31
Updated: 2017-07-31
Packaged: 2018-12-09 10:17:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11667120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalahadWilder/pseuds/GalahadWilder
Summary: Nightwing has a bad night.





	Heroes

It was a rough night in Blüdhaven. But then, they were all rough nights at this point.

Dick Grayson couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a good night’s sleep. Between his day job in the Blüdhaven police, the expectations put on him as the eldest Wayne, his responsibilities managing Bill Haly’s old circus, and of course his nights spent punching muggers into unconsciousness, everything had been piling up lately. Sure, Bruce could take microsleeps and get away with it, but Bruce was Bruce. Bruce was Batman. Nightwing needed sleep.

He collapsed against a chain-link fence, wiping blood from his nose. He’d made a rookie mistake, a bad one, and Professor Pyg had gotten the drop on him. He’d nearly lost an arm to the man’s bonesaw, and the Dollotrons had beaten his face in for almost half an hour before he’d managed to finally take them all out. It didn’t help that he knew what they were, that they had all been innocent people before Pyg had taken them and ruined their lives, destroyed their minds and bodies and turned them into unfeeling puppets. That one ordinary human had decided to do this to his fellow man, and worse, Nightwing hadn’t been able to stop him. Hadn’t been able to catch him. Had let him get away.

Sometimes, he didn’t know why he still did this. Why go out, night after night, sacrificing his own health and safety for a world that just didn’t want to be saved?

“Oh my god,” a tiny voice said. “You’re Nightwing, aren’t you.”

Dick turned to see a young boy, no more than 12, staring down at him. He squinted at the kid, trying to pick out his face. He was black, with short hair, and wearing a yellow shirt. He thought he recognized the kid… Robinson, maybe?

“You okay?” The kid said. He leaned in and looked closer. “You look like you got in a fight.”

Nightwing chuckled. “Yeah,” he said. “You could say that.”

“Come on,” the kid said, pulling Nightwing’s arm around his shoulder. “My mom’s an ER doctor, she can patch you up.”

Nightwing smiled at the kid, a weak smile, but as much as he could give. “Hey, thanks, kid,” he said. “I owe ya.”

Robinson… James! That was his name… shook his head. “You don’t owe me nothing,” James said. “You saved my brother from a house fire four months back.”

House fire? Dick didn’t remember that. Four months was a long time in superhero years, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d been involved in a fire.

James smiled at him again. “You’re my hero, man,” he said. “You’re everyone’s hero around here. You look out for us, so we’re gonna look out for you.”

Richard John Grayson looked up into the smiling face of James Robinson, and thought, _Oh. That’s why._


End file.
